Enviro News

This blog is about Reporting on the Environment. As journalism, it's evolved over time. Four decades ago it was what Paul Rogers, the natural resources and environment writer at the San Jose Mercury News, calls a "fringe pursuit" and has turned into "a key beat in American Journalism."

Here are some other contemporary journalists who cover the environment and some of their concerns about the beat:

Philip Shabecoff- covered the environment for 14 years at The New York Times
James Bruggers- reports on the environment for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, he says the complexities involved in coverage of the environment today make it a tougher beat
Jim Detjen- directs the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University, he argues for "sustainable journalism"
Bud Ward- founding editor of Environment Writer, a newsletter for environment reporters


"The Environment Beat's Rocky Terrain"

-Philip Shabecoff writes that during the 1970s, the environment was still not an established beat. However, when Ronald Reagan became president he turned the enviornment into a major political story by seeking to "roll back environmental laws and regulations and turn public lands and resources over to commercial interests," writes Shabecoff. This is when he was finally given permission at The New York Times to devote himself exclusively to this coverage.

Learning the environment beat, which includes a giagantic range of subjects, was a daunting task for Shabecoff. He says he had to give himself "crash courses in environmental science and environmental law." "Only after I plunged into the job did I begin to understand how much policy was intertwined with politics and economics and with ideology and broad social issues suce as race and poverty," he writes.

While soaking in all he could about the beat, he set about writing a book about the history of American environmentalism called "A Fierce Green Fire."

Shabecoff covered the environment at The New York Times from 1977 to 1991.

After retiring from the Times, Shabecoff founded and now published Greenwire, an online daily digest of environmental news.